How Fox and The WaPo Covered the MOAB Detonation Reflects America's Divide

Whether or not you support President Donald Trump's escalated military campaign in the Middle East, there is nothing beautiful about war, despite what Brian Williams says. On April 13, the United States military dropped a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb for the first time in combat on an ISIS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan. Nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," the bomb is the largest nonnuclear weapon in the army's arsenal.

Cable news and publications varied in their coverage of the airstrike. However, no two outlets accurately represent the political divide in the United States better than The Washington Post's story and Fox News's awestruck hosts.

On the same day the army dropped a MOAB, the military also reported an airstrike that mistakenly killed 18 Syrian allied fighters who were thought to be ISIS militants; The Washington Post led with this story and buried the MOAB detonation on page nine.

While The Post's coverage suggests the MOAB's deployment hedged on war propaganda and glorification, Fox & Friends had quite the opposite impression.

After airing the military-released footage of the explosion, the hosts immediately praise its beauty. "That is what freedom looks like: that's the red, white, and blue," host Ainsley Earhardt hails.

"One of my favorite things in the 16 years I've been here at Fox News is watching bombs drop on bad guys," Geraldo Rivera grotesquely adds.

The conservative network is not the only cable news channel to extol the military action. MSNBC host Williams recently drew the ire of the internet when he described the airstrike on a Syrian airfield as "beautiful" twice.

Apparently dropping bombs known to claim civilian lives is quite a casual thing now.